Workshop description

The aim of this workshop, organized in collaboration with the Universities of Bayreuth (D) and Bolzano (I), is to bring together scientists with different background (hydrology, soil science, plant physiology) but common research interests who use stable isotopes of water as tracers to study the partitioning of water in different environments.

This workshop will tackle the urgent need to share experiences and advance knowledge about the hydrological and eco-physiological mechanisms that regulate the selection of different water sources taken up by trees in different conditions and settings, including cultivated species in agricultural environments. Indeed, despite the amount of work that is being currently conducted on topics related to the ecohydrological separation of waters in different environmental settings there are still unsolved issues that can affect our interpretation of isotopic data and hamper a thorough conceptualization of the complex functional interrelations between soil and vegetation. These issues include specific methodological approaches such as suitable extraction methods of soil water and xylem water, use of leaf water instead of water taken from stem cores, isotopic fractionation processes within the plant and associated with water uptake and transpiration.

Therefore, having an interdisciplinary view on these topics that are at the interface of hydrology, soil science and plant physiology is critical to identify robust and shared perspectives within the scientific community.

Call for abstracts

We invite abstract contributions (see template at ‘Registration and Abstracts’ page) on isotope-based studies of water partitioning and plant-soil interactions in different environments, and specifically on the following themes:

Analysis on ecohydrological separation in vegetated catchments or in agricultural environments.

Methodological aspects of sampling soil and plant water for isotopic analysis

Water isotope fractionation processes during plant water uptake, translocation and transpiration.

Field observations of unexpected behaviour in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum

Link between hydrological and eco-physiological processes and water supply for irrigation and agricultural systems.